Being here. Now

"The present is the only moment available to us, and it is the door to all other moments. "

-Thich Nhat Hanh

January is a time of reflection for many of us - reviewing the past year, and maybe making promises about being better in the future. As humans, we are hardwired to live in the past and the future - while other animals rely on instincts and reflexes to survive, we depend on learning and planning ahead.

But what about life as it's happening right now? If we linger too much on what has gone before or fixate too heavily on the promise of better things to come, we could be missing the present moment, where we actually live.  After all, in our firsthand experience of life, now is all there ever really is.

In an "On Being" podcast interview with Eckhart Tolle, Krista Tippett notes that

"We have a tendency to obsess over the past and future, but we only know the past through the lens of the present, and when the future is upon us it will also be another now."

Eckhart Tolle expands on this: "When people value the next moment more than they value what is, they are dissatisfied with what is [and] are hoping some other future moment is going to free them from this dissatisfaction. But the other moment never actually comes because when the so-called future comes, it appears again as the unsatisfying present. And so when you realize, OK, where is my life? Essentially, it’s here and now, and it will never not be here and now. And suddenly you pay more attention to this."

Paying attention

As well as strengthening our bodies, and calming our minds, we can use our yoga practice as a gateway to the now. To where life is actually happening.

Yoga helps bring our minds and bodies to the same place. To do this, we focus on the breath - the bridge between body and mind, that is always - and constantly- available to us as living beings. This ever-present bridge is a lifeline that keeps us tethered to the immediacy of the current moment.

from Be Here Now by Ram Dass

As we consciously tune into the physical sensations of breathing - the rise and fall of the belly, the air passing through the nostrils - we bring our awareness to the here and now.

In the chaos of our thoughts, staying present is a deliberate effort. It's not always easy, and lapses are inevitable.

Yet, here's the beautiful paradox – the moment we recognize that our mind has wandered, that realization is, in itself, an act of being present.

It's a continual cycle – wander, realize, return – each step a reaffirmation of your presence in the moment. Each inhale a chance to start fresh in this new moment.

Come back to the breath, come back to your body, come back to the now.